Alex Palou happy championship rival Pato O'Ward starts in second for IndyCar race at Laguna Seca

2025 champion-elect, Alex Palou, shared he is happy that his championship rival, Pato O'Ward, will start today's race in second as it allows him to keep a closer eye on him.

Knocking O'Ward off the top position on his last lap in qualifying, Palou's time was three-tenths faster than O'Ward. The pole position also meant Palou was awarded one point which put the championship points gap back into three figures, currently sat at 100 points

Palou was asked in the post-qualifying press conference if he is worried about O'Ward behind, the Spaniard explained that O'Ward being at the front means they should run similar strategy which will help him and Chip Ganassi cover him off.

"Honestly, I've said it to the team, and I always think that it's better to have your closest competitor close", Palou began.

"You want to be on the same kind of same strategy and I think when you have somebody starting on like 17th, they might look good on paper today, but then suddenly they do a crazy strategy and they cycle to the front and you have like no chance to fight for it on track. 

"So I think it's great, I think it's good, it's for sure making it more challenging and more interesting for everybody. So honestly, I like it."

Talking about his pole lap, Palou shared that he found it "super comfortable" to drive and that he felt "there was not much more margin, at least from my side".

Asked for his opinion on strategy, Palou seemed keen to not reveal too much but seemed to suggest there might be worry of rain.

Palou said: "If it's wet, I'll start on wets. If it's not wet, there's no way we'll do that but we thought last week, obviously looking back [at Toronto], it's super easy to say that we made a mistake. 

"I didn't want to get trapped in traffic. I thought we had a lot of pace and we thought that one caution was going to be okay for our strategy and maybe two, but we got like four during the first stint. So it was the wrong decision but ultimately we were trying to win. 

"I don't know what we're going to do tomorrow but we're going to try and go for the win. We don't to give that up and just try and get points".

Speaking after Palou at the press conference, O'Ward seemed to be happy to be starting next to Palou but divulged that he didn't have it to put a lap time in like Palou's.

He rebutted a journalist who suggested that it was "very close out there" and said: "I think it was not very close, we've definitely seen closer ones before but it's my best start here so I'll take that.

"I think Alex just did a really, really strong lap. My qualifying was a bit more Scrappy really, especially from Q2 to Q3. 

"I found four tenths, but it needed two more to be closer. We'll take that tomorrow in.the pursuit of the championship."

O'Ward to continued to compliment Palou and called him the "master" of qualifying this year.

Reflecting on his own qualifying performance this year, the Mexican driver shared his thoughts that he thinks both he and Arrow McLaren have struggled to reach the Fast Six.

"We're obviously the only two that can win the championship now and I'm the one that's, chasing down pretty hard, so [I'd] much rather be next to each other than not. 

"Usually if you're next to him it means that you've been qualifying well because he seems to be the master this year at that.

"We seem to be a little bit more of a stranger to the fast six but our Fast Six record this year is pretty good. We've got a pole in a second."